Restoring Roots in overwatered Coco

I have 12 plants,l 6 of one strain, 6 of the other, all planted into keg cups as clones on the same day with the same root mass...all watered the same amount (25%runoff) once a day in keg cups then transplanted last week into 1 gallon pots. They are small for their veg time IMO (today is day 27 from planting clones into coco).

I'm pretty sure the problem is OVERwatering on most of them, since I pretty much watered them all when the lightest one needed watering...I just figured since they are all the same pheno of the same strain and had the same root mass, why can't I water them all the same amount and frequency? I picked up the droopy ones today and they were still heavy, I guess I've been watering way too much.

What is the normal watering schedule for you guys in 1 gallon pots with plants my size? A few of the healthier ones feel light after 2 days, the droopy ones haven't drank much at all since their last watering 4 days ago and I think the roots are shot...going by the pics, the first two are from a healthy plant showing the nice white roots, the last two are the problem plants, the roots are green/brown/clear and soggy looking.

If my problem is overwatering...what do I do to restore the droopy non drinking ones? Re-transplant? Just let them dry out and re water and hope new roots will grow?

My Feed mix is

5ml/gal CNS17 Grow
2ml/gal ProTekt Silica
.4ml/gal Drip Clean
1ml/gal Floralicious Plus
2ml/gal Orca (beneficial bacteria/mycorrhizae) .....this additive is supposed to prevent root rot, which has me wondering why my roots are in such bad shape, I guess overwatering will kill roots regardless of your preventative measures?

Comes out to about 0.6EC, or 300ppm...runoff has been 0.8EC or 400PPM.

pH is always 5.6 going in, 5.8 coming out.

Raise your EC to 1, at least. That looks like your problem alone right there.

Your plants look undernourished.

hydrolyzed said:

Comes out to about 0.6EC, or 300ppm...runoff has been 0.8EC or 400PPM.

pH is always 5.6 going in, 5.8 coming out.

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Thanks for the replies....Church, what suggests to you that they are underfed? I was always under the assumption that if my runoff coming out was higher than what I was putting in, I was actually over feeding them since there is an excess of nutrients being washed out in the runoff....I'm not saying your wrong, just saying what I've thought to be the case but I'm still learning.

hydrolyzed said:

Thanks for the replies....Church, what suggests to you that they are underfed? I was always under the assumption that if my runoff coming out was higher than what I was putting in, I was actually over feeding them since there is an excess of nutrients being washed out in the runoff....I'm not saying your wrong, just saying what I've thought to be the case but I'm still learning.

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I think it's because the plant is very light in color.
A very healthy plant would have a little more green color to it, that color is very yellow/green.
Which probably means it's drinking more nutrients than actual water.
Which also means that's why they feel heavy, they are only processing what they need, and what they need is food.

Roots can look like they are in bad shape for two reason.
The over watering could possibly be inducing root rot, or worse, some type of mold in the soil.
The roots could just be covering up because of the light, they don't like light and there is a ton of light in those small openings.

Cannabis.Is.Free said:

I think it's because the plant is very light in color.
A very healthy plant would have a little more green color to it, that color is very yellow/green.
Which probably means it's drinking more nutrients than actual water.
Which also means that's why they feel heavy, they are only processing what they need, and what they need is food.

Roots can look like they are in bad shape for two reason.
The over watering could possibly be inducing root rot, or worse, some type of mold in the soil.
The roots could just be covering up because of the light, they don't like light and there is a ton of light in those small openings.

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I think light green is also caused by root rot and overwatering, preventing the roots from taking up any nutrients at all....not sure though. I am almost positive I have root rot, I am mainly asking what to do to fix it at this point since the containers aren't really drying out much since the plants are not drinking any water...

Should I take them out of the pots and transplant them to bigger pots with dryish coco to suck some water out of the cores? Just let them sit there until dry and hope they survive? I really want to get some more Orca onto the roots to help them recover but that involves watering it into the pots which, IMO will just aggravate my overwatering problem. Ah!

Is the medium like soaked soaked ? to the point where its hard to dig your finger in?

If its just moist it should be fine, roots need space to breath, so unless you're literally drowning them, they should bounce back after a while.

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/347697-guide-getting-rid-root-rot.html
http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1017228-root-root-how-fixprevent.html
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/how-grow-marijuana/72169-how-do-i-identify-prevent-root-rot.html

The top is dry, but the pots are heavy, indicating the center is still soaked. Also, on the ones that are growing nicely, the roots are bursting from the holes in the bottom of the pot, in the droopy ones, there are just a few thin, clear and brown soggy slimy roots showing. I know I have to let them dry out, just sucks thinking about all the roots just sitting in the soaked center rotting and dying. Nothing I can do but wait for them to dry up a little then give them a nice watering with the Orca.

i've been in coco for years, and it's hard to overwater. but, with 25% run-off, you're doing a good job trying. bump the run-off down to 15% or so. up the ppm to about 5 to 600 ppm. until they get established, they don't need feed every day. i would think they would have taken off by now. i didn't see where you mention your light size. what are you using?

dude your fucked might as well peroxide those roots but it wont do shit your leaves are fuckd

Silky Shagsalot said:

i've been in coco for years, and it's hard to overwater. but, with 25% run-off, you're doing a good job trying. bump the run-off down to 15% or so. up the ppm to about 5 to 600 ppm. until they get established, they don't need feed every day. i would think they would have taken off by now. i didn't see where you mention your light size. what are you using?

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I am using a 1K MH 3' above them. I watered the light feeling ones tonight with 1.0EC solution, Per gallon rates--10ml CSN17 Grow, 2ml ProTekt, 0.4ml Drip Clean, 1ml Floralicous Plus, 1ml Orca...came to 501ppm...pH 5.81.

Just not sure why the heck a few of them are fine and rest are crap...they all went into the same coco in the same size pots with about the same starting root mass...I guess I really need to water only when the pots feel light, or I have some bacterial issue that the Orca isn't combating on some of the plants. My starting water is RO/DI then UV sterilized so it can't be that....scratching my head. Hope its just over watering on my part.

i use pro-tekt too, perfect for ph up. 3 feet above your canopy is too far away. 18" is good, unless you have heat issues, try and get it closer. air cooled vented hood?

Silky Shagsalot said:

i use pro-tekt too, perfect for ph up. 3 feet above your canopy is too far away. 18" is good, unless you have heat issues, try and get it closer. air cooled vented hood?

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I had it at 18" but raised it when I saw that drooping could be caused by the light being too close. Yes it's air cooled 8" and around here its about 5F out so the glass is cold to the touch, temps are 70F Day 60F night, humidity is 30-40%...I'm now researching whether it could be a VPD problem, but that wouldn't explain why only some of the plants are doing it.

drooping isn't caused by the light being too close. if the light were too close, you'd see canoeing/bleaching etc.

Silky Shagsalot said:

drooping isn't caused by the light being too close. if the light were too close, you'd see canoeing/bleaching etc.

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Yes I was aware of that, I just remember reading somewhere that if you have droopy plants for no reason, try raising the light...figured I would give it a shot. It's back to 18" now.


I pulled the worst 3 out of their pots tonight just to take a look, and the roots, while not many, seem to be OK, white and smell OK. This makes me wonder...wtf? Obviously for 29 days since being planted as clones, these should be much bigger with a lot more roots...maybe the roots inside the core that I can't see are rotting...the worst 4 plants are still very heavy/wet and won't seem to dry out much...not really sure what's going on.

Since I upped the EC to 1.0 the ones that are OK look a lot better though...thanks for the help so far everyone.

Just thought of something that might be important.....I haven't been checking the temp of the water I've been watering with lately....and I guess I've been watering with water that's 58F-63F.....would that cause these problems? I know cold weather could shock the plants, and at night they also get down to about 60F....but that still wouldn't explain why a few are doing OK and the rest are not.

cold roots aren't good. i've seen growth almost stop, from containers on cold ass cement....